The US economy avoids a recession, at least for now, Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Rick Newman tells the Market Domination Overtime team. He explains that Trump's softer tone on tariffs provides some relief to concerns about an economic slowdown.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination Overtime here.
Well, markets are calming as President Trump gradually backtracks on the most strident elements of his trade war. So scratch that recession, says Yahoo Finances Rick Newman. He's joining us now with this week's rendition of Trumponomics. So, we're in the clear, Rick?
We're in the clear this week. That is where we stand on the uh, on the Wheel of Fortune, I guess, uh based on the latest spins. Uh so, you know, a lot of the economists I'm I'm I follow are saying, okay, uh, this is getting marginally better. Uh Ed Yardini for example, uh an economist a lot of people follow, recently lowered his recession odds from 45% to 35%. Now, the start of the year, they were only 25%. So they're higher than they used to be, but it's moving in the right direction. And the, you know, the reason is obvious, we saw a little bit of progress this week on the trade war with the um, kind of fig leaf deal with the UK, and then Trump saying maybe 145% tariffs on Chinese imports is a little bit too high. Um, it's like way too high, but at least Trump is now acknowledging that. So, you know guys, this, this, this outlook obviously could change tomorrow, or anything could happen, but um, we are sort of seeing more signs that Trump realizes he's got uh, about two months to make some progress on this trade war, and that clock is ticking.
Can I ask you a separate question, Rick? And this certainly got a lot of attention today. Trump sort of suggesting here he, he's open to hiking taxes on, on wealthy Americans. Uh, this was this Truth, Truth Social post this morning. Said he would uh, his words, graciously accept even a tiny tax increase on the rich, though did seem to also acknowledge, hey, that could come with some, some political risk. I'm just curious what you made of that.
Well, uh Trump's trying to have it both ways obviously. Um that's a popular position. Um, it's certainly popular among Democrats, and, and also among some Republicans. And Trump is now populist. He's not really a Republican anymore. He's a populist. So that's uh, that, that's a popular position to take. It also tells you that uh, it's a, it's a reflection on the trouble Republicans in Congress are having coming up with the offsetting spending cuts, or whatever it takes to justify all the new tax cuts they want to do. So, um, they're, they're, that, that is a real struggle. Now, I don't think this is going to happen. I think there is basically no chance that Republicans in Congress would ever undo that part of their tax bill because a lot of those people are still traditional Republicans who favor lower taxes for everybody, and they have some constituencies uh, who don't, you know, wealthy donors who would not be happy about that. Um, so I don't think it's going to happen. But um, it's, it's as usual, Trump just say, kind of saying whatever pops to his mind and muddying the outlook for his allies in Congress.